Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs and to improve portability and convenience. Consumers have become dependent upon wireless communication devices such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and the like. Consumers have come to expect reliable service, expanded areas of coverage, and increased functionality.
In the context of a wireless communication system, the term “user equipment” (UE) refers to any device that may be used by an end user to communicate. UEs may be stationary or mobile, and may alternatively be referred to as mobile stations, stations, user terminals, access terminals, terminals, subscriber units, etc. Some examples of UEs include cellular phones, wireless devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices, wireless modems, laptop computers, etc.
Each UE may communicate with one or more base stations (which may alternatively be referred to as access points, Node Bs, etc.) via transmissions on the uplink and the downlink. The uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UEs to the base stations, and the downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the UEs.
Typically, there are multiple types of control information transmitted from a UE to a base station in the uplink of a wireless communication system. For example, the control information may include a channel quality indicator (CQI) and an acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK). In the case of a multiple antenna communication system, the control information may also include a pre-coding matrix indicator (PMI) and rank information. The examples of control information that were just mentioned (CQI, ACK/NACK, PMI, and rank information) may be considered to be a feedback report with respect to the downlink transmission. The control information may be transmitted via a control signaling channel.
As indicated above, the present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for transmitting control information via a control signaling channel.